Domestic Violence Top Killer In County

Domestic violence accounted for at least half of the murders that took place in DuPage County in 1996, a review of the murder cases indicates.

The county had only seven murders during the year, with the cause of one more death still to be determined. Of those seven cases, four involved instances of domestic violence.

The role of domestic violence continues a trend that has been surfacing for the last six years in the county.

In the 1996 slayings, the suspects included an estranged husband, a former husband, a boyfriend and the daughter of a girlfriend.

In fact, in all of the DuPage murders, there is a strong possibility that the victim knew the killer.

Two of the victims were young children who died as the result of abuse. One 5-month-old victim sustained numerous internal injuries, and that case remains under investigation but is officially listed as a homicide. The other case involves a 2-year-old boy who was fatally abused by his mother's boyfriend. The killer has been found guilty of murder and awaits sentencing.

DuPage, with a population of roughly 1 million, had a murder for every 120,000 people. In contrast, Chicago had a murder for approximately every 4,000 residents.

Similarly, low numbers of murders have been the norm in DuPage. There were eight murders recorded in the county in 1994, and as few as five murders in 1989 and 1987.

But there have been spikes in the murder chart. One of them came in 1995, when 21 people were murdered. The record was 23 murders in 1991.

Over the last six years, the county has averaged about 14 murders a year.

In comparison, Chicago, with something less than three times the population of DuPage County, had 785 murders in 1996 as of Tuesday. That was down from the 826 murders that occurred in 1995 in the city.

To the west, Aurora suffered a record 26 murders in 1996, up by one from the previous record set in 1995. Of the 1996 murders, 17 were linked to gangs.

"It's difficult to draw conclusions from DuPage County statistics because they are always so low," said John Kinsella, the county's first assistant state's attorney.

"But, it's obviously a very good thing that the murder rate is very low, and I like to think that the prosecutors and police have played a large role in that, but we know we also have a favorable set of social demographics.

"The armed robbery type of murder is rare in DuPage and is very unusual," Kinsella said. "We know we have had to work on the domestic violence programs, and in recent years the criminal justice system has responded with several working programs."

In addition, DuPage law enforcement authorities have warned repeatedly about the dangers of increased gang activity. Since 1991, at least one person each year has been killed as a result of gang violence.

In one of the homicides, the victim remains unidentified. He was found shot to death in Naperville in October. Police officials have said they suspect he was involved in an illegal activity such as drugs or gangs and was taken to the area and executed with a bullet in the head.

Murder cases in DuPage County traditionally take more than a year to get to trial. As a result, only one defendant charged with a 1996 murder has come to trial, and that defendant was found guilty.

Illinois State Police statistics for the first nine months of 1996 indicated that major crime was down statewide 2.4 percent, and there was a 1.9 percent decrease in DuPage County.

In Kane County, there was an increase of 3.7 percent in major crime, which police officials link to the heightened gang activity in municipalities like Aurora and Elgin.

Statewide, according to the state police, murders were down almost 2 percent.